Why are people tweeting PARKLIFE! at Russell Brand?
The comedian and actor has had his revolutionary message undermined by a Blur song
Poor old Russell Brand – he's out there trying to inflame the masses into a worldwide revolution with the power and majesty of his words, and all he gets is people quoting 90s Britpop back at him.
Yes, the comedian-turned-actor-turned-revolutionary has been a victim of a Twitter joke that juxtaposes his words with Blur lyrics – and in a real blow to his credibility, it's not even their best song.
If you’re confused as to why people are responding to Brand's call to anarchy with the words of Damon Albarn, here’s a quick recap...
Brand has always been known for his judicious use of all the words that language has to offer at every opportunity, and his recent foray into politics is no exception.
But then a few Twitter users began to notice that his words fitted well into 1994 Blur song Parklife, which features actor Phil Daniels performing loquacious spoken-word verses in a cockney accent (eg “Confidence is the preference of the habitual voyeur of what is known as…”) before lead singer Damon Albarn chimes in with PARKLIFE! If you need to refresh you memory, you can listen to the song below.
Twitter user Earthman Johann was the first to notice that Brand's words had a touch of the song about them in a review of Revolution he had read...
However, it wasn't until fellow Tweeter Dan Barker noticed the same that the joke really took off, leading to thousands of retweets and imitators:
Soon, it got to the stage where Brand couldn’t say anything without an exuberant response of PARKLIFE!
Then Revolution's Amazon reviews began to pick up the trend..
And then came the mash-up videos…
Brand presumably won't be too happy about his message being diluted, but one of the joke’s originators hopes there’ll be no hard feelings.
"Just as Craig David eventually found peace with his Bo Selecta taunters, I hope Russell Brand can eventually forgive me, along with Damon Albarn, Phil Daniels, and @paperclipracket who pointed out he’d made the observation before I did (his was funnier too)," Dan Barker told BuzzFeed.
If nothing else, the situation has proven Brand's hope that the people can indeed band together in a common cause – even if that cause is tweeting PARKLIFE at him. Or in other words:
All the people,
So many people
And they all go hand in hand,
Hand in hand through their...
Parklife!
Authors
Huw Fullerton is a Commissioning Editor for Radio Times magazine, covering Entertainment, Comedy and Specialist Drama.
